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US based market intelligence firm Transparency Market Research has added a comprehensive report on the global uranium market titled "Uranium Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth And Forecast 2012 - 2018" to its repository. Uranium is a global product. It is widely (and primarily) used in nuclear power plants worldwide for electric power generation. But much unlike other metals, uranium stores or supplies of it are not traded in an organized commodity exchange market. They are rather sold directly under long-term contracts from the supplier to the buyers.

As already mentioned, the major commercial application of Uranium is for the generation of electricity. Currently, around 11% of the world’s electricity is produced by nuclear energy and the numbers are prone to shoot exponentially in the coming times. The report states that the rising global demand for electricity and in the capacity of nuclear reactors is driving the global uranium market. Also, the global uranium market is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period.

Nearly 75% of the global uranium is supplied through mining activities while some portions of it come from secondary sources such as recycled uranium, civil stockpiles and ex-military weapons-grade uranium. The report mentions that currently, the main growth in uranium demand is from Russia and China. The growth of uranium market is obvious from the facts that recently, these countries have sought equity shares in uranium mines abroad. A rise is also recorded in strategic investments in the production of uranium, even when the prices are not lowest. The report adds that during the forecast period, the global demand for uranium is anticipated to rise from countries such as China, Russia, India and the Middle East and the European regions.

According to the report, the major factors driving the growth of this industry shall be the growing demand for electricity from developing nations, fluctuation in prices of oil, economic advantage associated with the production of uranium and the rising awareness about ill-effects of other major fuels to the environment and the benefits of nuclear energy to generate electricity with almost no emission of greenhouse gases. The factors that could restrain the global growth of this market include the highly capital-intensive nature of the industry and the longer durations required to obtain uranium mining permits.

The market of uranium producers is highly concentration with a sparse number of market players, from very few countries ruling it. A recent joint venture amongst Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom and Russia’s Rosatom has made the market even more tight-knit. Some major names in the industry include African Energy Resources Ltd, National Atomic Company Kazatomprom, Cameco Corp., China National Nuclear Corp., JOGMEC and Gulf Mines Ltd.